We created the climate for Jussie Smollett's hoax: The media and the country have incentivized oversimplistic white-vs.-black narratives

By Ioannis Gatsiounis

Feb 22, 2019 | 6:45 PM

This Feb. 21, 2019 photo released by the Chicago Police Department shows Jussie Smollett. Police say the "Empire" actor turned himself in early Thursday to face a charge of making a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago. (Chicago Police Department via AP)

With news that actor Jussie Smollett may have fabricated an attack against him by Trump-supporting white supremacists, attention now turns to why the actor would do such a thing. But whatever his motive, Smollett must have known that a generally sympathetic media and general public would lap up his claim.

Ever since the Trayvon Martin tragedy, we as a nation have rightfully become more attentive to racial injustices that define everyday life in the black experience. But in the process, we’ve become quick to fit instances of racial tension into the narrative of black lives being preyed upon in a white man’s world — and give short thrift to voices or evidence that challenge the claim.

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Before Smollett allegedly played us, he would have been very familiar with how seduced by this narrative the nation has become. When last year, for example, a slew of cell phone videos surfaced showing white people calling the police on black people, there was never any question in most media reports and public comments I read as to whether the calls were triggered by anything other than race (some clearly were; others less so).

When Serena Williams had an epic meltdown at last year’s U.S. Open, many news outlets recast her as a black woman standing up to stodgy white patriarchy. When NFL player Michael Bennett was involved in a Las Vegas nightclub incident with police, the media gave ample space to Bennett’s claim that he was mistreated by police because he was black.

Neither incident turned out to be quite what they claimed. Bennett had in fact bolted the scene against police orders, and police bodycam evidence (worn by a black officer no less) contradicted his claim that officers put a gun to his head and threatened to blow it off. In Williams case, data surfaced showing that, no she was not being unfairly penalized because she was a woman; in truth men are penalized more often than women are for that infraction.

Yet rather than seeing their credibility take a hit, both became symbols of the larger struggle. GQ would go on to name Williams Woman of the Year; Bumble featured her in its Super Bowl spot in the role of, what else, a strong woman. Bennett would release a book on race a few months after his incident, with little media scrutiny of his reliability as a narrator.

This is not to say Smollett thought he would be able to preserve his reputation if he were found out. But given how zealous we’ve become in defending alleged victims, he may well have calculated that his odds of convincing people of his hoax were pretty darn good. Gay black man attacked by white Trump supporters. What’s not to believe, what’s not to get outraged by?

Others, it seems, have been working from the same playbook, a number of them at university campuses where concern for racial injustice is most acute. After President Trump’s election victory, a Bowling Green State University student falsely reported that a group of white Trump supporters threw rocks and hurled racial slurs at her. A racist note on a black student’s windshield that spurred protests at St. Olaf College was fabricated. In 2017 alone, the conservative-leaning College Fix reported 15 other alleged hate crimes that turned out to be hoaxes.

If that comes as news to you, it’s because the mainstream media have resisted straying much from the narrative of black victim vs. white oppressor. So if you’re Smollett, rather than seeing risk of being caught, you probably see an environment that’s ripe for exploiting.

The problem with this groupthink is that it incentivizes bad actors at a time when racial oppression continues to be a very real part of American life. “How much more cautious are [police] going to be to extend credibility and resources to a real hate crime?” asked Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston of Chicago’s New Hope Baptist Church, according to the Washington Post.

Our challenge, our responsibility, will be to balance sensitivity with skepticism. To resist the temptation to fit stories to the black-and-white narrative, all the while recognizing that some incidents will in fact fit it to a T. To not be afraid to question a minority’s claims of victimization, while not dismissing them as playing the victim/race card.

We don’t get there unless we — the media, the larger public — trade in the “conversation” we’re having, whereby honesty, skepticism, acknowledgement of complexity or sympathy for anyone other than the minority is greeted with contempt if not overt charges of racism; for a real dialogue that is open to hearing from more sides, that resists attacking those who don’t side with minorities wholesale, that doesn’t fit stories to the black-and-white narrative, that doesn’t use the narrative for clicks or to demonize the political opposition, that is sensitive without being preoccupied with being sensitive.

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Otherwise, we’re paving the way for the next hate-filled hoax, and real victims will suffer for it.